Category: Paper Prompt

Essential Question: What should we think about Turkle’s claim that social technologies are changing the conversations we have and thereby changing how we relate to one another as adults in ways that reduce empathy for one another and foster depression and social anxiety?

Write a paper about how social technologies like social media and internet-connected mobile phones both connect and disconnect us with consequences for the conversations we have in social, work, and educational settings. You’ll synthesize the work of Turkle, Konnikova, Henig, and your classmates, as well as your own ideas and experiences, to respond to Turkle’s argument that social technologies are changing the conversations we have and thereby changing how we relate to one another as adults in ways that reduce empathy for one another and foster depression and social anxiety.

In making your argument, draw on and develop your pre-writing and entering-the-conversation work done over the last several classes.

Your audience is a general reader who has NOT read Turkle, Henig, Konnikova or your classmate’s work.

Your purpose is to advance your own perspective (view or argument) in response to Turkle’s claim that social technologies are changing how we relate to one another as adults in ways that reduce empathy and foster depression and social anxiety. Synthesizing and responding to the ideas presented by Turkle, Henig, Konnikova and at least one classmate. Be sure to analyze relevant examples from their texts and your own experiences.

Expectations:

• Use this Google Docs template to set up your manuscript in MLA style.
• Write a paper of 1,000 words or more in which you develop your perspective on how social technologies, conversation, and adulthood.
• Briefly introduce Turkle’s diagnosis of the impact of social technologies on human relationships and the questions and issues she raises that you want to address in your essay.
• Introduce Henig and Konnikova when you first put their ideas in conversation with Turkle’s.
• Incorporate quotes from Turkle, Henig and Konnikova and at least 1 from one of your classmate’s pre-writing.
• Engage Turkle’s idea that embracing authentic face-to-face conversations is a cure for depression and social anxiety.
• Incorporate a least one moment in your essay in which you “play the believing game,” write about the merits of someone’s idea you find difficult to accept, and respond to those merits with complicating points of your own (or from one of your classmates). PRO TIP: Use Barclay’s Formula and Okay, But templates to help structure this.
• Plant a naysayer in your essay.
• Use voice markers and signal verbs to mark shifts from one voice to another.
• Use pivot words (transitions), pointing words, and repeated key words and phrases to connect the parts of your paragraphs and paper together.
• Make the Who Cares? and So What? moves.
• Document your sources using MLA style, with signal phrases, in-text parenthetical references, and a Works Cited page to signal your use of other writers’ words.

Information needed to write a MLA-style citation for “The Flight From Conversation”

Author: Sherry Turkle Chapter title: “The Flight from Conversation” Book title: Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age Publisher: Penguin Press Date Published: 2015

Essential Question: How is social media impacting the human development of emerging adults?

Write a paper in which you write about how social media impacts the development of emerging adults. You’ll use the work of Konnikova, Henig, and your classmates, as well as your own ideas and experiences, to construct your own theory of how social media impacts the development of emerging adults.

In making your argument, draw on and develop your pre-writing and entering-the-conversation work done over the last several classes. That work focused on definitions of adulthood and emerging adulthood, the social and cultural changes in which emerging adulthood emerged, your own experiences as emerging adults, and the way social media might be a mixed blessing for emerging adults.

Your audience is a general reader who has NOT read Henig, Konnikova or your classmate’s work, nor thought much about the evolving nature of friendship or adulthood.

Your purpose is to advance your own perspective (view or argument) on how social media use impacts the development of emerging adults by synthesizing and responding to the ideas presented by Henig, Konnikova and at least one classmate. Be sure to analyze relevant examples from their texts and your own experiences.

Expectations:

• Use this Google Docs template to set up your manuscript in MLA style.
• Write a paper of 1,000 words or more in which you develop your perspective on how social media may be shaping the development of emerging adults
• Briefly introduce Henig and Konnikova and the questions and issues that are raised when considering their work together. Do this in a way that leads readers to your initial perspective on the driving question of your paper.
• Incorporate quotes from Henig and Konnikova and 1 from one of your classmate’s pre-writing.
• Incorporate a least one moment in your essay in which you “play the believing game,” write about the merits of someone’s idea you find difficult to accept, and respond to those merits with complicating points of your own (or from one of your classmates). PRO TIP: Use Barclay’s Formula and Okay, But templates to help structure this.
• Plant a naysayer in your essay
• Engage the question of the mixed blessing of social media as a way for emerging adults to meet the developmental needs of their phase of life.
• Document your sources using MLA style, with signal phrases, in-text parenthetical references, and a Works Cited page to signal your use of other writers’ words.

Information needed to write a MLA-style citation for “What Is It About 20-Somethings?”

Author: Robin Marantz Henig Article title: “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” Magazine title: New York Times Magazine Date Published: August 18, 2010

Essential Questions: How does social media change the nature of relationships such as friendships? To what degree should (or shouldn’t) we be concerned about this evolution of friendship?

Write a paper in which you evaluate the quality of relationships in the digital age, drawing from the work of Maria Konnikova and one of your classmates.

In making your argument, draw on and develop your pre-writing and entering-the-conversation work done over the last several classes. That work focused on the qualities of friendship, your own experiences with friendship and social media, and the impacts of virtual friendships.

Your audience is a general reader who has NOT read Konnikova or your classmate’s work, nor thought much about the evolving nature of friendship in the digital age. They do however have considerable experience with friendship in general and social media.

Your purpose is to advance your own perspective (view or argument) on what Konnikova and your classmate tell us about friendship and social media by synthesizing their ideas and analyzing relevant examples from their texts and your own experiences.

Consider using your classmate’s writing to confirm or complicate Konnikova’s view or your own.

Expectations:

• Use this Google Docs template to set up your manuscript in MLA style.
• Write a paper of 1,000 words or more in which you develop your perspective on how social media may be changing the nature of friendship.
• Briefly introduce Konnikova and the questions and issues she raises in her article in a way that leads readers to your initial perspective on the question.
• Incorporate 3 quotes from Konnikova and 1 from one of your classmate’s pre-writing in a series of They Say/I Say exchanges.
• Incorporate a least one moment in your essay in which you “play the believing game,” write about the merits of someone’s idea you find difficult to accept, and respond to those merits with complicating points of your own (or from one of your classmates).
• Engage Konnikova’s concerns about social skill development and Dunbar’s research on the nature of friendship.
• Document both sources (Konnikova and your classmate) using MLA style, with signal phrases, in-text parenthetical references, and a Works Cited page to signal your use of other writers’ words.

Information needed to write a MLA-style citation for “The Limits of Conversation”

Author: Maria Konnikova Article title: “The Limits of Friendship” Magazine title: The New Yorker Date Published: October 7, 2014